Press Release
CAPE signs Four Year Tentative Agreement On Behalf of the EC Group
November 28, 2008
For Immediate Release
Ottawa, Ontario, November 28, 2008. The Canadian Association of Professional Employees’ (CAPE) EC Group has signed a tentative agreement aimed at renewing the EC collective agreement. The EC Group includes 11,000 Economists, Sociologists, Statisticians and Social Science Support employees of the Federal Public Service.
The EC Negotiating Team, headed by Claude Danik CAPE’s Executive Director, will submit the tentative agreement to CAPE’s EC membership for its decision. Details of the settlement include: a four year collective agreement ending June 21, 2011; a yearly salary increase of 2.3% effective June 22, 2007, and three successive years of salary increases of 1.5% effective June 22, 2008, 2009 and 2010; a new provision for compassionate care leave; improvements to the bereavement leave clause; an entitlement to a personal learning plan; improvements to the maternity/parental clauses; various improvements related to compensatory leave, and additional leave for EC members who work on Parliament Hill.
What is not found in the final offer is money to address various matters that were raised in the context of negotiating pay rates for the EC conversion. “The employer’s final offer excluded all possibility of negotiating money for pay structure problems,” explained Mr. Danik. “As a result and because the EC group was the only group scheduled for a classification conversion, the members of the group will feel the effects of the employer’s heavy handed action much more deeply. This is what happens when a government takes sweeping action without careful consideration of its effect on specific groups.”
On November 18, Vic Toews, President of the Treasury Board, announced that the employer would be presenting final offers to the bargaining agents of the core public administration.
CAPE’s EC bargaining team chose the prudent line of action and decided to provide EC members with the opportunity to vote on the final offer. The alternative was to reject the offer and wait for the special compensation legislation announced by the government which is expected to impose conditions that are even less attractive than those of the final offer.
"After advising Treasury Board officials last week that the EC bargaining team was considering the final offer, we urged them to take appropriate action to encourage Mr Toews and the Conservative government to reconsider its position and address the pay matters related to EC conversion, but to no avail,” said Claude Danik.
EC conversion is scheduled for June 22, 2009. It is to be anticipated that CAPE will have more to say in the coming weeks on the development of the standard, on the unmodified inadequate pay structure and on how the two are interrelated.
For further information contact Claude Danik, Executive Director, CAPE, at 1-800-265-9181 or 613-236-9181.
CAPE signs Four Year Tentative Agreement On Behalf of the EC Group
November 28, 2008
For Immediate Release
Ottawa, Ontario, November 28, 2008. The Canadian Association of Professional Employees’ (CAPE) EC Group has signed a tentative agreement aimed at renewing the EC collective agreement. The EC Group includes 11,000 Economists, Sociologists, Statisticians and Social Science Support employees of the Federal Public Service.
The EC Negotiating Team, headed by Claude Danik CAPE’s Executive Director, will submit the tentative agreement to CAPE’s EC membership for its decision. Details of the settlement include: a four year collective agreement ending June 21, 2011; a yearly salary increase of 2.3% effective June 22, 2007, and three successive years of salary increases of 1.5% effective June 22, 2008, 2009 and 2010; a new provision for compassionate care leave; improvements to the bereavement leave clause; an entitlement to a personal learning plan; improvements to the maternity/parental clauses; various improvements related to compensatory leave, and additional leave for EC members who work on Parliament Hill.
What is not found in the final offer is money to address various matters that were raised in the context of negotiating pay rates for the EC conversion. “The employer’s final offer excluded all possibility of negotiating money for pay structure problems,” explained Mr. Danik. “As a result and because the EC group was the only group scheduled for a classification conversion, the members of the group will feel the effects of the employer’s heavy handed action much more deeply. This is what happens when a government takes sweeping action without careful consideration of its effect on specific groups.”
On November 18, Vic Toews, President of the Treasury Board, announced that the employer would be presenting final offers to the bargaining agents of the core public administration.
CAPE’s EC bargaining team chose the prudent line of action and decided to provide EC members with the opportunity to vote on the final offer. The alternative was to reject the offer and wait for the special compensation legislation announced by the government which is expected to impose conditions that are even less attractive than those of the final offer.
"After advising Treasury Board officials last week that the EC bargaining team was considering the final offer, we urged them to take appropriate action to encourage Mr Toews and the Conservative government to reconsider its position and address the pay matters related to EC conversion, but to no avail,” said Claude Danik.
EC conversion is scheduled for June 22, 2009. It is to be anticipated that CAPE will have more to say in the coming weeks on the development of the standard, on the unmodified inadequate pay structure and on how the two are interrelated.
For further information contact Claude Danik, Executive Director, CAPE, at 1-800-265-9181 or 613-236-9181.
- 30 -